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OF THE 

MALVERSATIONS AND CORRUPTIONS ^^ 

OP THE 'fff^' 

EXECUTIYE GOVERNMENT & OF CONGRESS. 



THEIR USURPATIONS, PROFLIGACIES, FAVORITISM, IMBE- 
CILITY, NEPOTISM, OFFICIAL SINECURES, 
AND NEGLECT OF DUTIES. 



The EohherJ.es of the Indian Ring^ the Railway Ring, the National 
Bank Ring, the Bonded Debt Ring and the Eastern 
Protection Interest Rir<g j amounting in all to 
\^ One Hundred Million Dollars a Year. 

The leading object of this appeal to the people concerning public affairs is to point 
out plainly and directly the malversations, corruptions, and other like infamies of the 
Government and of Cjngress with assimilated Executive agencies throughout the countr\-, 
and to establish their verity beyond peradventure or doubt, out of the motdhs of Itepuhli- 
«an ivitnesses. By the astounding atrocities in question, labor, or the products of the national 
industry, are swindled out of at least one hundred millions of dollars ($100,000,000) a year 
(over and above what of taxes is necessary for the proper support of the government) to 
swell the coffers of the bloated class interests in the East, and those of corrupt office 
holders, and their "rings" of affiliated public plunderers. 

Reserving comment and r-jflectionj upon the point of the wide spread private and 
social demoralization that has come of the crying public sin and shame, as plague and 
pestilence spring from physical rotienness or pollution, it is proposed to take a passing 
gluDce at gome of the mischievous and wicked practices which, if of minor guilt as com- 
pared with the literal phuu^ering of the means of the people to minister to the coarse and 
wanton cravings of the class money interests of the E ist, are nevertheless things of such 
public magnitude, notoriety and scandal as to command place in what is intended to be a 
general indictment in plain fads explicitly stated, and not in mincing or roundabout phrases 
or in aught set down in malice, of the Radical party now in power and place in nearly 
all public trusts in the land. These may be classed under the several heads of 1 t'surpa- 

TIOX, 'i, PKOhLIGAGY, 3, FAVORITISM, 1, IMRECILIrY, 5, NKPOTISM, G, OFFICIAL SINKCURES and 

7, NEGLECT OF DUTY, all which ate (ilniost convertible terms for mercenariness, venality and 
corruption, and are ceitainl}' the first fatal steps in this direction, if not indeed the liohuu 
Upas source of al! blasting public unisobief, misfortune and disasters. 






TMBKCIMTY IN PDIJLIC MEN. 



As to the Congressional imbecility, reference will be more particularly had in another 
portion of this discussion, but in connection of the traditional odiousness to the Ameri- 
can people of appointing members of Congress to Kxeeutive positions, which they now in 
^o many instances especially dishonor, what intelligent and right thinking citizen does not 
feel humiliated for his country by the fact, that a man of the feeble abilities, the mean 
and narrow views, the inflated, pompous manners and demagogical devices of a Washburne 
should, because of his attaching himself to the interests of a fortunate and remarkably 
pampered military chief, be elevated to the exalted station of Secretary of State, to give 
him a credential or an undeserved edat, to the end that he might not be utterly tabooed 
by the accomplished diplomats of Christendom, who are unfailingly designated by their 
governments for the conspicuous position of minister to the court of St. Cloud. 

Xor is this grave political offence of the administration of General Grant, at all miti- 
gated by the face that the scholar, historian, and experienced diplomat, Motley who 
has high name in circles of ministerial rank of all civilized nations should be thrust from 
position, out of_ a feeling of malevolence towards Senator Sumner, because of his op- 
posing the acquisition of St. Domingo, under the circumstances of corruption which en- 
veloped the scheme like a pall, and which seemed to the public sense to l)e of Executive 
knowledge, if not of aiding and abetting. It is to be remembered that Mr. Sumner, on the 
floor of- the Senate, pointed to the hands on the clock, indicating that his final' act an- 
tagonizmg the St. Domingo scheme was precisely contemporaneous with Mr. Motley's de- 
capitation. 

The Nation (Rep.) thus speaks of this affair : 

"Senators 'now insist on not only confirming the nominations of the Executive, but on 
making the nominations; and the only mode of exercising any influence over them, or in- 
deed over the public service at all, which the President retains, lies in the power 'of dis- 
missal In this way he avenges his wrongs, and snubs, and humiliations. The consequence 
is that when the report goes abroad that a Senator or Representative is at logo-eiheads 
with the Executive, thie-dozens-o-f poor devils he has got places for b«gin to shak'e'in their 
boots, or look about for other means of support, for they know they will be saerified ia 
expiation of the great man's sins." 

A leading journal, referring to the administration and its foreign appointments, says: 

" P'relingbuysen has declined the English mission. He has taken a long time to consider 
the subject, and has concluded that its acceptance will add nothing to his reputation. An 
administration must be sunk very low when such a i-nan as Frelinghuysen declines an office 
heretofore regarded with so much distinction. When this fact became known Grant of- 
fered the position to Senator Trumbull of Illinois. The French Minister had already been 
taken froui that State; the President hailed from there, and now he proposed to all the 
Englisli mission from the same quarter. 

"It is now stated that Trumbull declines. And so the great ofFice goes a bes'gintr under 
Grant's administration." ^'^ ° 

It has been hinted about the Departments at Washington that General Grant takes 
exceptions to the handsome manner in which Mr. Motley lives in London, but in this 
lespect he certainly cannot approximate the luxuriousness of the President himself in 
respect to extravagant appurtenances, in style, and in the volatile habits which are so 
inconsistent with the dignity and duty of the Chief Executive Magistrate of the nation. 
It is stated also, that Mr. Motley has ofrended in not following the precise letter of instruc- 
tions of a President and Secretary of State of feeble abilities, in effecting nearly the 
same class of treaties that were negotiate-! under the Johnson administration, and which 
lor the purposes of a partizan " hue and cry," were rejected by the United Slates Senate. 
It is just possible that Mr. Motley does not feel that it is consistent with American honor, 
and intercits to negotiate further treaties in the nature of compromise as lo territories', 
1 ounjarie^, fipheries, i!Cc.. with our old and inveterate foe. 



^ 



THK INEFFICIENT CABINET. 



Concarning the inefficiency of Cabinet Ministers, all of whom but one or two of infe- 
_^riof rank at this rlate, are following the example of the Chief Executive and show official 
y of the gift enterprise administration, together with numerous bureau officers, and a flood 
of clerks, it is only necessary to adopt the forcible presentment of the leading Republican 
paper of the Northwest, the Chicago Tiibune — in the words " that the Cabinet officers 
were nobodies before they wfere appointed, nobodies in their positions, and it is a matter of 
no sort of consequence if they were one and all away from their posts." Referring to the 
ruling member of the Cabinet, Boutwell, the Nation (Rep.) says: "The fact would seem 
to be that the Secretary of the Treasury has a hatred of statistics, or, at best, a disbelief 
ill them, which mitjht be called very curious if it were not so common among the men 
wlio have been most iiiliaeritial in the recent history of the country. Mr. Weils, the great 
writer aifniust hitih tariffs for e.xample, gathers together from all parts of the country, 
and studies and tabulates, a mass of figures cipibU, in the hands of an instructed sta- 
tistician, of showing with aecurac}' what is to be our ne.Kt corn crop or our ne.Kt wheat 
erop, or cotton or wool crop — a source of information, one would tliink, which a financial 
minister might be thankful to have ready to his hand and be able to use in makini; his 
schema of taxation. But Mr. Boutwell is capable not onlv of declining to use it, but of 
contradicting its conclusions on the strength of what he himself had observed from a cai' 
window when travellinu; U[) and down the country. Sornetliin.; like this we liave heard 
of him, and there is notliiig incredible in it. incredible as it ought to seem.' Men of his 
kind do not care for figures, nor believe that there is a science of statistics, still less that 
upon it is based the science of society ; and the political training which he has had has 
done nothing to develop in him anything but a sort of impatient contempt for people who 
insist on the necessity of scientific legislation. The best part of his training he got amoni"- 
the set of men, man}' of them able and most of them as honest as himself, who have for 
ten or twelve years past been navigating so successfully by merely keeping two or three 
of the great moi'al headlands in sight, that it is some tiaie since the^^ dropped the compass 
and quadrant overboard, and beeaine careless, if not sceptical and scornful, as to any 
other part of seammship than crowding canvass. And the worst part of his training lie 
got in the school that thinks enough is said when it can say that it has got a nnjority in 
the last fall elections, and a very good show — if the propiir number of brass-band speeches 
are m,ide in the rural districts— for carrying the elections next fsiU. 

"We do not disg>;ise our belief that it is little less than calamitous that a man so strong 
in his convictions, so nai-row in his views, so uninstrueted, and so saturated with the 
spirit of " practical politic^," should have obtained the ascendancy which Mr. Boutwell 
seems to have obtained over the mind of General Grant." 

grant's desertion from the white house AND OF HIS OFFICIAL DUTIES. 

The disreputable practice by the Executive head of the nation, of the habit of constant 
and continual absence from his post of dutj-, of course renders him utterly unfitted for 
that studious consic'eration of great public questions which is literally imposed by the Con- 
stitution, and is therefore a matter of serious State necessity. General Grant seems to have 
had a sort of prescience when he wrote to Mr. Morris, of Illinois, that his being a candi- 
date for the Presidency would be a great public misfortune. 

The ivT. Y. San (Rad. ) thus speaks, with the exception of what is within brackets, of the 
President: 

"The Court Journal in Wasiiington, (Forney's Chionicle,) publishes the following bul- 
letins from the Palace : 

" Secretary Cox is the only member of tlie Cabinet now in tbe city."' 
*• Secretary Robeson is expected to return here about the middle of next week." 

[It also publislied a few days since, that at General Grant's request, an e.xtra box had been provided for 
him at the theatre, where he could retire to smoke, converse, ic. j 

"Ten years ago, a similar announcement would have provoked indignant comment all 
over the country. But we have made progress since then, especially under the present 
rcyime, which in many important respects is modelled upon that of Louis Napoleon. 



" lu the whole history of the Government, no such flagrant disregard of the public inter- 
ests and wilful contempt for public opinion have ever beeu exhibited by any former Adminis- 
tration. The conduct of the President and of his Cabinet in this respect is a shame and 
a scandal. 

" The President has been absent from Washington about one-fourth of the time since his 
inauguration. He has drawn from the Treasury some $10,000 in salary for which no pre- 
tence of service has ever been rendered. That is to say, he has taken this much pav while 
running about the country in search of pleasure and amusement, or looking after his 
personal interests. 

''The President receives $25,000 a year for salary alone, bat the appropriations for the 
White House make it nearly all clear profit. (The report proceeds to say, the White House 
grounds to which the people have immemoriall v had access, but from which thej' are now ex- 
cluded, are all kept up at public expense.) Secretaries, clerks, messengers, steward, servants, 
gardeners, laborers, lights, fuel, stationery, green house, kitchen garden, stables and nu- 
merous other items are paid for out of the pockets of the people. These appropriations, 
which were wholly unknown a few years ago, have grown up gradually, until they now 
sum up tens of thousands annually. 

"With all these advantages, the President might at least set the example of remaining at 
his post, even if incompetent to discharge the duties propei'ly. The effect of this sort cf 
strolling absenteeism is to bring the Presidency into discredit, besides showing a want of 
appreciation of the dignity and responsibilities of that high trust on the part of the 
incumbent. 

"The Queen of England, who reigns but does not govern, is rebuked for her absence in 
Scotland at this crisis. Here is a telegram from London, published by a coincidence on 
the day when the Washington Court Journal announced the absence of all the Cabinet 
but one member. 

•■ Displeased with the Queen.— There is deep displeasure here at the retreat of the Queen to Balmoral 
at this crisis, and some persons urge a regency, with the I'riuce of Wales at its head, 

[It is susceptible of proof that at a gathering of Radical members of Congress in the 
rooms at the National hotel, of a reckless Senator of Michigan, who it is stated took 
offence when abroad at Mr. Motley, on the occasion of Mr. Lincoln's going to Hampton 
Iloads to confer with rebel commissioners relating to peace measures, it was proposed 
and emphatically urged to depose him, and one Senator, more fierce and violent than the 
lest, indulged the hope that the steamer carrying him would be blown up.] 

" In monarchical England the Queen is called to account for leaving Windsor, although 
she has little if any responsibility in carrying on the Government, while in this republic 
the President, who is charged with seeing the laws executed, turns his back upon the 
capital and upon his dut}'. 

"Of course the members of the Cabinet follow the example of their chief, and abandon 
their offices to the clerks, although paid $8,000 a year for attending to them. Is it to be 
wondered at that the public service is demoi'alized from top to bottom, that corruption is 
the order of the day, that frauds are conuealed, and that looseness, disorder, and venality 
prevail through the Departments? 

" The very men who thus desert their places for pleasure are those who impose the most 
slavii'h and degrading rules on their subordinates. Factory regulations have been set up 
by Mr. Bancroft Davis, Mr. Fish, and others, which are absolutely disgraceful. Clerks 
must record the hour of coming to office and departure from it, and deduction is made 
for all loss of time." 

Since the above publication from the N. Y. Sun, edited by Mr. Dana, who for so many 
years was the managing editor of the N. Y. Tribune, several of the leading papers of 
London have come out in strong denunciation of that mere effig}' of power, the Queen, 
for her absence at Balmoral. They also advocate the creation <>f a regeucy. 

An examination of Forne^-'s Chronicle, the Court Journal of Washington, shows that the 
President has been absent, from his pont of duty in dozens of times — some of them for a 
long period at the resorts of fashion and foil}'. These discreditable practices have been 
often committed when Congress has been in session, and even at its last hours when the 
rush of legislation often demands the keenest scrutiny of the Executive, and should too, in 
some cases of reckless current legislation, have called out that exercise of the veto power 
which the Constitution requires. And here it should be slated that previous Presidents and 
Cabinet Ministers were nearly all very able statesmen, to wlioin men of all parties could 
look with pride, and who possessed the conceded high qualities of capacity, ability and 
learning, to which were joined habits of strict and laborious attention to their official duties 
and responsibilities. 



If, is not, in t,he nature of thincjs, that General Grant, ■when mingling with the frivolous vo- 
tariea of fashion at the watering places near Xew York city, or flying from point to point 
across the con I i cent, can give any proper attention to state subjects, or present other mtssagcs 
to Cong' ess in iinportant emergencies than the late feeble one for the extension of the session. 

The late pi-ociamation of neutrality was not '^ done in Wai-hington,'^ bo far as his or Sec- 
retary Fish's Revising, wi'iting or signing it was concerned, but it, was "done" by someone 
of the clerks there, ( who are the only class that are reliably at the capital.) General 
Grant in an excursion to Europe, and as a temporary member of King William or Napo- 
leon's staff, would be just as much at Washington as when purporting to be there at the 
"doing" of the neutrality proclamation. 

At the very least, General Grant and Mr. Boutwell could have attended Admiral Farra- 
jrut.'s funeral, which was but a short ride from them. Concerning this a leading journal 
Bays : 

"It certainly was a roost singular fact that no official representative of the Government 
was present at Admiral Farragut's funeral, last week. Singular indeed. General Grant 
was at Long Branch, while the old fighting sailor's remains were being borne to their last 
repose. Why was he not present to represent the Government on the occasion? He can 
travel hundreds of miles to see a horse race, but not a foot to honor the man who spent 
his life in the service of the nation, and under its flag." 

A SINECURE OFFICIAL. 

While this paper is in process of preparation, Sfr. Secretary of the Treasury Boutwell, 
is again in Massachusetts, where he intends to spend the protracted term of near two months, 
(his salary going on meantime, when that of clerks, females particularly, is frequently 
docked for slight irregularities.) Mr. Boutwell is much engaged in making electioneering 
speeches in the interests of the class monopolies of that section of the country, which has 
been enriched by the legislation of Congress, stimulated by his favorite, fostering, and 
sustaining authority. 

In the protracted absence of Mr. Boutwell, his place is supplied by Mr. Richardson, 
whose office is a mere sinecure, he being in Washington not above a fourth of the time, 
while at the same time he is the incumbent of a valuable office in Massachusetts. This 
Mr. Ricliardson is not the only example of favoritism of the President and Mr. Boutwell, 
for at the very la-«t session of Congress, when no inanij true objects of public expenditure 
were po!:tponed or defeated by the pretentious econonjy of Mr. Dawes, Chairman of the 
House Committee on Appropriations, an appropriation of $20,000, was slyly secured by 
the infiuenctr of said Dawes and Boui.well for distribution (as additional to their already 
large salaries) among a few pampered clerks of the Secretary's office, which clerks are no 
more entitled to such extravagant gratuity than other clerks of the Treasury Depart- 
ment, or of other branches of the public service. Concerning the favoritism of Jlr. Bout- 
well in profligate squandf^ring of public mone}' in lil;e mauntr last year, Gen. Morgan 
of Ohio, in hi.s address to his constituents thus speaks: 

" In consequence of an anonymous letter received by me, on the iVth of January last, 
I offered a resolution, which passed the House, embracing five interrogatories, calling 
upon Mr. Boutwell for certain information, and on the 22d of February it was replied to 
by Executive Document No. 188, which I liold in my hand. The third question called on 
Mr. Boutwell for " A statement embracing the names of the clerks now in this depart- 
ment other than chief clerks, who receive more than eighteen hundred dollars salary." 
And I will read from page G of Secretary Boutweli's answer, as follows: 

"A I'st of the clerks and their names now (.lanuary 17, 1S70,) receiving more than at 
the ra'e of $1,800 per annum, other than chief clerks of the bureaus of the Treasury 
Department." And here follow the names of fifty-nine clerks who receive illegal salaries, 
varying in amounts from two thousand to five thousand dollars ; and the Secretary does 
not deign to apologize for, or excuse this p.-ilpabie violation of law, and he continues to 
pay jujt such salaries as he chooses and to whom he chooses, and then coolly certifies 
that he does so." 

/^' it not a grave question, which icrong the better deserves impeachment, unlawful bestoval of 
public money upon favorites, or continutd and constant absence from ; osts of duly for any 
purpose of t'lfshnec.s whatever? 



G 

But >norc of lliefausriiism of the Treasury Department: 

While email accounts and claim?, under instructions, are kept bacl^ from pa^ymenf, fas 
tke}' are also in ail other Department,) vast aeconnts of that mammoth swindle upon the 
Government, as filoher of iiublic lands with mines^ tioiber lands, &f! , of r,~'';:''d vahie,„ore 
being pushed with indeceVit haste through the forms of allowance and after iFi'e same ftyle 
that favored parties were served during the war, bj- which fo many officials acquired floods 
of money through the preferring one claimant over many, or by taking cases out of their 
turn in respect to the time of their being filed and allowed. 

FKAUDS AT THE NEW YOKK CUSTOM HOUSE. 

It is notorious that the main reason for changing from New York to the other cities of 
the country, the transaction of what of custom-house business related to imports for said 
cities, in respect to to appraisals, collections, <fec., was because of the corruption of the 
present custom-house officers, (among whom is the notorious Blatchford,) at New 
York, who for money, or its equivalent, favors certain New York dealers in the respect 
of getting their imported goods, waies and merchandise upon thit markets far in ad- 
vance of those of importers in the interior who do vot. if theji know liom, resort to bribery 
of officials. And for this rotten and odious state of things at New York, the people ot the 
country must be heavily taxed for the really unnecf-ssary muUipli(!ation of the expenditures 
in establishing in nearly all the cities of the laud the entire machinery, paraphernalia, or 
arcana of men and things about collections of revenues, such as exist at New York It em- 
braces for grand custom houses, and government warehouses, and places for thousands of 
officials, who in process of time will learn and practise the same frauds as do some of tho 
Kadical officials at New York. It was admitted in the discussion of the measure in Con- 
gress, that a multitude of new avenues to fraud would be opened, [Senator Sprague 
classed the condition with the general deniorilization.] but so strong was the desire to create 
public expenditures, by appropriations for new Government structures, and also to get 
more tools of leading politicians battened off upon the public charge in the form of new 
shoals of custom house officers, that the measure passed. 

NEPOTISM. 

As to the nepotism of the party in power, or the disgraceful practice of those officials 
of the higher kind, who control appointments and patronage to select incompetent rela- 
tives for the receipt of such, and who cannot make tolerable headway in busiLcas cir- 
cles, it has become so common, that the great offence against decency and against public 
interest has measurably ceased to be subject of public reprobation. It seems to be con- 
strued by politicians that when the people elected them to office, the elevation and place 
of all their small and feeble relatives was implied. 

REPELLING CUBA. 

The imbecility of the administration of General Grant has been very conspicuously and 
hurtfully illustrated by its blundering policy concprning the acquisition of Cuba. The 
pear is ripe and ready to drop into our laps. The leading presses of all Europe have had 
articles for a long time to the effect that the destiny and natural tendency of Cuba was to 
become part and'parcel of the United States. xY revolutiou has existed there for near two 
years, and it is but a clay or two since that we had accounts ol a victory of the revolu- 
tionists and of the transport of more troops to Ciiba from poor, old and .distracted Spain, 
■whose legal government was so long suspended by the flight of the Queen, which has been 
hunting all over Europe for an occupant of its throne, and partly has brought on terrific 
•war between two great nations. 

The situation ha"s most remarkably favored the acquisition of Cuba, and the public 
opinion in the country has been nearly unanimous to tlie effect that the Administration 
counsels in the matter have been in tiie highest degree injurious, since that it cannot be 
gainsaid that such acquisition would have been of the greatest possible value to every 
national interest. 

Had General Grant or Mr. Fish, or both of them, declined to put a stop to the enforce- 
ment of the neutrality laws, for the reneon that the wur on the part of Spain was carried 



on in a form of atrocity tliat put her, aa to military operations Iherr, out of tbe. pale of 
nations, Cuba would liave been revolutionized uioiiths ago, and in the wav of acquisitiou 
by llie United States. Wliy should not the adriiiiiiftration, rather than to have taken step* 
by "whi«h liSpain has used our natural resoiri'ees iu the purchase of arms, ships, ifce., and bv 
the actual interposition of our fleets to put^xiownthe revolutioni.-sts have followed the exam- 
pie of our government in all its history concerning the struggle of peoples to east off foreign 
yokes, or to establish republican institutions over the downcast authorities and persons of 
kings and monarchies? Could not General Grant have bethought himself on this wiee, 
witli an ailvantiige to his country that would be worthy of one in ajposition requiring the 
execution in a large way of the abilities of a statesman? Could he not have read with 
profit the following passage from a j.'ireat fpeech of DANIEL WKltSTlM!. concerning the 
Greek revolution, which speech opposed pretty nearly the same policy (that of the Holv 
Alliance) as that on which General Grant nets, namely to help absolutism against freedom : 

" The end and scope of this amalgamated policy is neither more nor less than this, to in- 
terfere by force, for any government, against any people, who may resist it. Be the state 
of the people what it maj', they shall not lise ; be the government what it will it shall not 
oppose. The practical comment has corresponded witli the plain language of the text, 
Ijook at Spain and at Greece. If men may not resist the Spanish inquisition or the 
Turkish ciraeter, what is there to whicii humanity must not submit? Stronger cases can 
iievei' arise. Is it not proper for us at all times — is it not our duty to come forth and den\' 
and condemn these monstrous principles? Where but here and none other place are they 
likely to be restricted. 

"Human liberty may yet perhaps be obliged to repose its principal hope on the intelli- 
gence and vigor of the Saxon race, as far as depends on xis at least. I trust our hopes will 
not he disajipointed, and thut to the extent which may consist with our own settled 
pacific policy, our opinions and sentiments may be brought to act on the right side, and to 
the right end, and on occasion which is in truth nothing less than a momentous question 
between an intelligent age, full of knowledge, thirsting for improvement and quickened by 
a thousand impulses, and the most arbitrary pretensions, sustained by unprecedented 
power." 

USUKPATIONS OF TUE EXECL'TIVE. 

The most recent case of palpable usurpation by the Executive, is that of sending the 
United States troops into North Carolina to give endorsement, if not aid and comfort to 
the infamous Holden, in his effort through wanton acts of cruelty and wrong by a negro 
militia, to teriorize the people of that State into submission to his rule aud raid of ruin. 
It was not difficult to predict that precisely the opposite effect would come of Ilolden's 
atrocious conduct, and therefoi'e it would seem that the reported indications of the adop- 
tion of a like policy by the Governors of Florida and Mississippi, and perhaps by Governors 
of other Southern States have no foundations in point of fact. A bui'ued child dreads 
tiie fii'e, and if the " seallawags and carpet baggers" of the South court a political burial 
that shall know no glimmer of a resurrection, they have only to imitate the wicked course 
of Holden, even though they be backed by thousands instead of hundreds of federal bayo- 
nets. There is always a limit to the forbearance of the people, and when they are once 
thoroughly aroused from the almost deathlike s'lipor that sometimes marks their submis 
sion to the arbitrary course of corrupt rulers, they make up a record of condemnation 
that is never wrong, and is alwaj's efficient. It unfailingly consigns the wretches that 
would put upon them a tyrant's yoke, to a depth of infamy from which there is no return- 
ing ebb in the popular thought, but which shall keep due on in time's current tt) shame 
and disgrace them and their children, and children's children. 

RADICAL PRETENCES OF SYMPATHY -WITH PRUSSIA. 

Some of the crafty leaders of the party, whose wrongs and outrages are portrayed here 
are seeking to secure the continued adhesion to them of the German element of our popu- 
lation, by a simulated sympathy for Prussia in the war now going on in Europe, as if that 
intelligent body of men could thus be made to forget the acts of the party in power to 
obstruct naturalization, aud neutralize, and perhaps destroy the naturalized vole in large 
cities, bv the diabolical agency of what is termed a "jiolice bill," which passed at the late 
sesaion of Congress; and as if too, Germans could forget or I'orgive all the other hide- 
ous en^incrrr c>(^ Radical cliicnnc and opproanion i>i the form of Suiidpy lawa, prohibitory 



8 

liquor laws, and the like legiulation of a sumptuary character to infract and sfanjp out tbc 
habits and customs of a people. "To maintain habits and customs, says a great publicist, a 
])eople will rouse themselves to greater acts of resistance to what infracts them, than they 
will against what assails political institutions or forms of government, and even the secu- 
rity of property itself." The German element'of population cannot therefore be diverted 
by the hypocritical cant of Radical demae^o^ues about political affairs in Europe, from thafe 
well founded and constantly augmenting feeling of distrust and dislike which is rapidly 
leading them to an entire estrantrement and separation from the Radical psrty. They, 
in the coming elections, cannot fail to regard our home issues, or whatinvolves the threshold 
nnd the fireside, rather than foreign wars, unless indeed republican iuatttutious shall spring 
from existing complications. 

THE KU-KLUX KAW HEAD AND BLOODT BONE'S. 

But it is principally in the revival, on the eve of the election, of stories abo'ut alleged 
Ku-Klux outrages in the South that the Radical shoal of public plunderers rely "to fire 
the Northern heart," and turn public attention from them and their astounding in-famies- 
But this game is essentially " played out." It has created so many mischiefs to the busi- 
ness of the country, by keeping up resentments between sections, that even Mr. Akerman, 
the Attorney General of tlie United States, and many of the leading Republican presses of 
the North, liave come out in utter i-epudiation of a further persistence in the base series 
of falsehoods of carpetbaggers and scallawags, which are almost their entire capital. 

On this bead the New York Tribune speaks as follaws : 

"We have a word for Governor Holden and Senator Abbot. Jnst before the North 
Carolina election we printed a letter from Judge Touigtie concerning the Ku-Klux out- 
rages in that State. Certain very startling statements were made in it, which, but for the 
respectable signature, would have been universally scouted. Judge Tourgee promptly 
wrote us, complaining that the figur<:'S he had given, in enumerating cases of outrage, had 
been increased tenfold by the addition of a cypher to each, converting ten into a hundred, 
etc. Now, we printed the letter precisely as Governor Holden in person delivered it to 
our correspondent, and as the correspondent understood that Governor Holden had re- 
ceived it from Senator Abbott, to whom it was addreosed. We submit to these gentlemen 
that they have allowed too long a time to elapse without explaining to us how the dis-' 
graceful garbling occurred. We should have e:£pected them to be us indignant as we were 
ourselves at the fraud practiced upon us. and to be prompt in exposing the forger who 
abused their trust (in copying the letter) by putting into Judge Tourgee's mouth mon- 
strous assertions which he never dreamed of uttering. Governor Holden, who garbled the 
letter which you gave our correspondent? " 

The Nation [Republican] also writes as follows : 

"The Northern people are begitining to understand the carpet-bagger tolerably well, 
and he is on his last legs, no doubt, but every month by which his final end can be 
hastened is precious; aiid it is to be hoped that light from all sources may be thrown on 
his figure till there may not be a man in the Republican paity who does not justify the 
S nth in its hatred of him, and see why the South is to be partly e.^cused for hating ua. 
A'^typical carpet-bagger may actually have been afew years ago a bankrupt salooL-keeper, 
of the ability usual with his class, whose saloon decayed because of a vehement suspicion 
th at it was a house of assignation, and an absolute certainty that it was a very unsatisfac" 
tory place in which to eat and drink ; he may have been more than half believed to have 
set his saloon on fire for the sake of getting the insurance money ; he may then have been' 
a soldier, known for currying favor, and a petty officer hated for snnll tyrannies; he may 
ajways have been innoct-ut of more education than goes to the reading of the Ledger ; and 
y et to-day he may be lieutenant governor of a State, with a prosperous 'ring;' and he 
may be a Congressman, and a seller of cadetships; or — and here is a chief concern of ours 
with him — he may be a representative of Northern civilization, an instiuctor of the negro- 
voter, making him rotten in legislative rascality before he is ripe for suffrage; an agent in 
jecoDstruction. and a fruitful source of the hearty hatred for the North, which has so long 
delayed the peace that is essential. And worse cases than this could be cited. Every 
Southern State has had it share of them, and the Republican party has suffered in conse- 
quence abc'jt as al'jcb es it is -v'm to attempt bearing." 



9 

A precicns exposure of th.? 'R.'t^lical crew c^t.tio? from tbe Wa3hington correspondent of ttiG 
Cincinnati Commercial, or Gazette, [Radical] as follows: 

"It sesms st.range that 30 little should be known here concernir;g t.he renl condition of 
affairs in North Carolina. There is more than a suspicion that but little cause exists for 
the extraordinary course taken by Governor Ilolden. One fact, known here to most of the 
])ress, has done nuire than any of the stories from either side on the field of action to throw 
enspicion upon llolden's mov.'ments and creale the belief that he ha^; acted otdy to fur- 
ther the interests of local political factions. And that fact is this: .\ few weeks before ad- 
journment S.->nator Pool came to the reporter."!' j^allery and called out a gentleman he sup- 
posed to be connected with the Wtishingtun Chronicle. [.Mr. Forney's papei'.] He then 
showed hi(n a North Carolina newspaper, in which there was a collection of Ka Klux out- 
rages, murders, and robbings drawn out at great Ifngth. The Senator wenn on 10 Faj 
quitt confidently that it was desirable the Chronicle should at once begin the publication 
of this colleciion, and keep it up until the stitements made should be well disseminated in 
the North. He ifurther explained the need of this by saying that to carry ths State nCxt 
fall it would be necessary to u?e the militia extensively, and if this collection of outrages 
could be well circulated beforehand it would justify the step in tlie eyes of Northern K»;- 
publicans. Mr. Pool made the mistake of communicating all this to tbe wrong man. 
However, he must have ascertained his mistake afterward, and remedied it, as accounts of 
dire outrage in North Carolina began to appear the second day after this Conversation, 
and iu due time the State militia has appeared upon tlie scene." 

EXPENDITURES OF THE GOVEPvNMFNT IN LAND. 

Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts, Chairman of the Committee of Appropriations in thf> 
Souse of Representatives, made a speech at the beginning of the last session of Congress, 
in which he charged hin, tbe Grant administration with the commission of greater extrava- 
gance and proflio-aey of expenditure, than that of the previous administration. This 
otatement was ba^ed upon the appropriations of the previous session of Congress, and tbe 
estimates of heads uf departments for the late one. This exposure created a great /jzror 
against Mr. Dawes; but it served to terrorize tbe unscrupulous element to some extent, and 
prevented the passage of ^onie schemes of a plundering character. This was from 
fear of the people at the fall elections. But it is well understood that at the next i^e.^niori 
the flood-gates of profligacy are to be opened, when a perfect coup de grace to the best 
remaining portions of the public lands !■» contemplated. That which a few years ago was 
supposed to be the almost boundles-i and endless inheritance of poor labor — the public 
lands which under the homestead and preemption policy of the old statesmen assured 
millions small farms and livings to the "-plain jyeople," (Mr. Lincoln's phrase) in nearly alt 
tbe portion of the country west of the Oliio river to the stream — 

" Whose sands are amber 
And \'rhose pebblei gold." 

All euch Iraluable public lands, it is repeated, have either passed irito the hands 01 
''railroad rings" or are fast tending in that fatal direction. Trunk lines ann( lateral lines 
of r.-iilway, bringing on all sorts of Indian ditlieuUies, will soon absorb all the best public 
lands into the hands of great railway specuUtors and operate'rs, and the day of cheap 
lands ti' poor labor will be gone forever. The vast possessions of new millionaires, and 
ten-millionHires, or fifty-millionaires, who, alone or combined, ^n. all-grasping and cruci- 
fying corporations, will monopolize the public lands and shut out— 
" A brave yeomani'y, their country's pride. 
Which once destroyed, can never be supplied." 

There are now on tbe House Calendar, waiting action by that body next winter, bills 
asking for new grants of lands amounting to considerably more than one hundred million 
acres. These bills have passed the Senate. In that body bill? are pending which ask for 
nearly two hundred millions more. It is esfimaied that, exclusive of Alaska, the water 
and mountain surfaces, there does not remain within the public land area more than seven 
h\mdred million acres of land available for settlement. So it. is proposed to give ont-half 
of this away, and to whom? Why, corporations, the very creation of which, in their 
present unrestricted form, are but monopolies of the most powerful character, sure, if left 
to themselves, to control legislation in the support of privileges dangerous in re.iults. 
It is to be remembered, also, that of the f'J '2,000, 000 000 at which the real estate of the 
country is now valued, it is estimated that at least ^18,000,000,000 is the result merely of 
speculation. Fro n such causes grow the raonstrods disproportions of wealth and poverty 
from Ti-hich o^ir comm-'jici-al c-ivi'izuticn groan-:. 



10 

Tiiegeneral publicai'e little aware of the enormous subsidies that harebeen g ivcn to moneyed 
corporaiions in the shape of land grants within the last eighth-ears. From a careful inspection 
and compilation, it is found that thej amount to 173,274,158 acres, as follows : 
' ' ■■ . c: . M V 

1 VJ862.> 

Acres. 

July 5— Chicago and Northwestern 375,680 

April 22-^Chicago and Noi thwestern .'., 1,800,000 

July 12 — St. l^aul and Pacitic 725 000 



Total 2,900,680 

18G3-4. 

Mqrch 3— ,Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galraston ") 

July 1— Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe \ 2,500,000 

" Union Pacitio and Southern Branch j 

May 5— Toneah and I ake Superior 675,000 

" St. Croix and Lake Superior 350,000 

" Branch to Haytield 215, OOn 

June 7— Grand Rapids and Indiana 631,200 

July 2,— Sioux City and Pacific 580,000 

Aiay 12— Minnesota Vallev 150,000 

" McGregor and Sioux City 1,636,000 

" Sioux City and St. Paul." '. 255,000 

June 2— Burlington and Missouri 191,110 

" Mississippi and Missouri 116,275 

" Ceder Kapids and Missouri 123,370 

Total 7,222,955 

18G7. 

May 26— Xorthcin Pacific 20,000,000 



Total 20,000,000 

1868. 

Fort Dodge and Sioux City 1,226,163 

1869. 

War. 3— Chicago and Xorthwostern 188,800 

" Ray de Xorquet and Marquette '. 128,000 

" Marquette and Ontonagon 243,200 

" St. Paul and Pacific 500,000 

" Branch St. Paul and Pacific 750,000 

" Minnesota Central 290,000 

" Winona and St. Peter 690,000 

July 28— Memphis and Little Hock 365,539 

" Cairo aud Fulton 966.721 

" Little Rock aud Fort Smith 458,771 

July 4— Iron Mountain Railroad 864,000 

July 28— Cairo aud Fulton 182,718 

.luly 4— Ircn Mountain 1,400,000 

July 3— Jackson, I ansing and Saginaw .'....." ".'.'.".' ."„'...,' l,052,46.t» 

•' Flint and Poramarquette.. 586,822 

July 13— Lake Superior and Mississippi 800,000 

Minnesota Southern 735,000 

" Hastings and Dacotah 550,00 

July ^3— St. Jos.z'ph and Denver Citj- 1.700,000 

July 25— Kansas and Keosho Vallev 2.350,000 

•'" .V 26— Southern Branch Union facific 1.203,000 

/ ,^ o,'~~'^'''*'^'^'"^i"e -I'ld Sacramento 200,000 

Juy 2o— California and Oregon 1,540,000 

July 27— Atlantic and l^icifi'c ," .'.'...'.." 42,000,000 



Total. 



69,605.010 



11 

1^70. 
Mar. 2.— Stockton aud Copperopolis 320;COo 

MISCELtANEOUS SUBSIDIES. 

By the acis of Congress of July, 18C2, July 2,1864, July 3, 18CG, July 2G, 1860, and 
joint resolutions of March 10, 18G9, there were granted to the Union Pacific and 
the Central Pacific, and their branches 7. 35,000,000 

By the acts of Congress July 2, 18G4, and joint resolutions of May, 1866, and April 
"10, 18G9, were granted to the Northern Pacific 47,000,000 

Total 82,000,000 

TOTALS. 

]S62 - , 2,800,000 

1SG3-4 7,222,953 

1S67 20,00,0000 

1868 - 1,226,163 

1869 59,605,040 

1S70 320,000 

Miscellaneous 82,000,000 

Grand Total , 173,274,158 

"There i"," saj^s a leading press of the country, "about four times aa much land in the 
above as there is embraced within the limits of the Slate of Pennsylvania, and if divided 
into homesteads of one hundred and sixty neres each, would furnish homes for more than 
one njillion af families, giving them not only an opportunity to make an honest living, but 
a chance to accumulate a competence. These lands, too, are the most valuable of all the 
public domain, and being placed, as the}' are, in the hands of powerful corporations, will 
continue to be worthless, so far as the augmentation of the national wealth is concerned, 
until they are sold at exorbitant prices to actual, settlers, without any benefit to the 
Government. Now, if these lands were to be absolutely given away, would it not have 
Vieea infinitely better to have given them to the crowded populations of the cities and 
F.uropeau emigrants coming hither, to enrich the nation with their labor? Undoubtedly 
it would, but there would have been no speculation in this for the lobby at Washington, 
the spoils of which v/ere shared by Congressmen." 

THE PEOPLE AFTER THE ROBBERS. 

The constituents of Hon. Sidney Clarke, of Kansas, are after him -with a multiplicity of 
very sharp sticks. At a meeting the other day, a committee was appointed to invite his 
attendance at Olathe on the 27th, where and when an t)pportanity will be aflorded him to 
render an account of his stewardship. .In discharging this duty the committee rather 
pointedly indicate the nature of the accusations against their Representative. They say : 

"You are aware that serious opoosition^^ill be made to your re-election to Congress hy 
all the settlers on the Black Bob R-serve. on the grounds, as they allege and believe, that 
you have betrayed their interests into the hands of i-peculators ; and you have used your 
iillicial position to defeat ihem in their eft'orts to secure titles to their lands, except through 
the hands of speculators, and that you are generally mixed up in what is termed through- 
out the State "The Black Bob swindle." 

After presenting such an indictment, it seems a Ifttle strange that the committee should 
add, " It is unnecesfary for us to say that we will extend to you the courtesies due to all 
gentlemen." 

DEFALCATIONS. 

Gen. Geo. Tf. Morgan has opened the campaign in the Thiiteeiitli Congressional Di.-trict 
of Ohio. In a speech of marked power on Tuesday last he made the following statetcenta 
ba^ed upi">n f:>?(s, which w'llbc of service in this locality: 



12 

tSREE HUNDRED AND FORTY INTERNAL REVENUE DEFAULTERS. 

"vV'hen T tell ycti that there has been three hundred and fort.)' defaulters amdng the cdU 
lectors of Internal Revenue, you look surprised an(5 ask one another, "Why have we not 
been told of this before ? " For the simple reason, my friends, because the facts have been 
Concealed, atid had to be dug out. On the 2Ut of March last it was resolved by the House 
that "The Secretary of the Treasury be, and is hereby directed to furnish this House a 
etatement of balances due from collectors of Internal Revenue, not now in office, &c. 

And I invir.e your attention to Executive Document No. 267, being the reply of the Hon. 
George S. Boutwell, in answer to that resolution. Look at it yourselves. Here are eight 
eolid pages of the na-nes of three hundred afid forti/ defaulters ! I have not time to read 
them all, but will call off ten, and you may form an idea of what the remaining three 
hundred and thirty amount to. 

Names of clcfanltersi Am'ts of Defalcations. 

Frank Soule. ; $1,543,719 

Sh -ridan Shook 1,043.547 

Alexander Spaulding i ... i ..... . 439,489 

M. B. Field .' J 632,879 

Lewis Collins 652 305 

John H. Bryant 435,000 

W. C. Flagg 227.307 

W. T. Cunningham. ; ; 292,4()0 

T) B. Bonfoly 536,000 

F. T. Hunt,. .".....; 250,407 

Loss by ten defaulters $5,933,113 

There is within a fr'iction of six million dollars of taxes gobbled up by ten defaulters, 
hot one of whom has bf en prospcnted, or ordered to be ]irosecutpd. In all these three 
hundred and forty defulcations, civil suits have only been ordered in thirty cases, and not 
one criminal prosecution. 

But this is not wor.-ie than the defaults of army and navy paymasters during the war. 
They number in all ahove a hundred. Their responsibilities are millions upon millions, 
and no sureties have been called upon and so the defalcations are total loss, because the 
statute of limitations has now run against the prosecution of the cases. All this from the 
political influence of corrupt radical jobbers. 

INDEFINITE APPROPRIATIONS. 

Passing from tlie point of Radical profligacy of t'ae public lands for the benefit of shoals 
of speculators and soulless corporations, it should be stated that the appropriations of the 
last Congress have only been indicated in any quarter by the adding up the sums named 
in the several bills or laws rlpprdpriating public money. There were at the late session 
(as th-ere ever is at any session) very numerous indefinite appropriations, or those which 
prov de for objects, not in figures, or fixed sums, but for taking money from the Treasury 
that ie not otherwise appropriated. These indefinite appropriations amount always to 
tens of millions of dollars, and if the value of the public lands given by this Congress at 
the late session hf coinpnted as of the same class, the indefinite appropi'iatinns amount to 
a hundred inilfion. of dollars. So frightened Wf-re Dawes and other Radical leaders at the 
great extravagatjce and profligncy of Congress that they resorted to the wicked plan of 
suspending the regubir appropriations of two years back, a large part of which were yet 
tinexpended, and as a consequence of this wretched and unheard of trick of political 
schemers, great numbers of accounts and claims, and necf ssary objects of expenditure, were 
altOLjethel" slopped. A great number of things which should have been appropriated for 
were not, and deep itijury has supervened to the business of the country. The re- 
sult will be seen ea»ly in the next session, by the passage of deficiency hills, or like remedial 
tneaE'jrc!?, which v.'ill amount to fifty or even « hundred mHliom; of dollars. 



PLUNDEKS OF THE INDIAN KING. 

So much having been stated concerning public expenditures, including the rapacity and 
robbery of the infamous railway rings, it ia proposed next to refer to the indescribable 
official scoundrelism that not only plunders the Indians, but thereby brings ou the wars 
with these poor creatures which cost the Goveitiiiieiit and people millions aud tens of mil- 
lions of dollars. 

With the advent of Radical rule, in 18(31, commenced the most stupendous sj-stem of 
frauds and peculations, the half of which if written would fill a volume larger than the 
Congressional Globe, therefore a brief allusion to a few of these frauds inflst suffice. During 
the administration of Usher as Secretary of the Interior, and Dole as Commissioner of In- 
dian Affairs, continued by Harlan as iSecretar}-, and Cooley as Commissioner, more than 
$5,000,000 were appropriated by Congress to feed and clothe refugees — Southern Indians 
in Kansas. This vast sum was expended by the Indian Department, under the direction 
of well known officials; but it is a faut well known that while the poor In- 
dians received but very little relief from these munificent appropriations, the members of 
the [iidiaa ring, before poverty stricken enoui^h, suddenly bdOi^nu the owners of magnifi- 
cent mansions, splendid equipages, lines of railroads, nationnl banks, stocks, and untold 
thousands of broad acres of lands. Under the management of this infamous Indian ring 
over 100,000,000 acres of fraudulent half breed Chippewa Indian scrip was issued, mostly, 
as is believed, to fictitious names, wiiioh was made locatable upon the most valuable of our 
Government lands. This scrip, though issued to Indians, has been in every instance 
located by white speculators, aud in no instance has a piece of it ever been located by aa 
Indian. 

This Indian ring negotiated numerous Indian treaties — all gross frauds — by which the 
Indians were swindled and the Government robbed of vast amounts of money. In these 
last swindles Jim Lane, Pomeroy. and Claike, of Kansas, figured extensively as copartners 
in this Indian ring. The Sac aud Fox, the Kansas, the Kickapoo, ihe Delaware, and the 
Pottawatomie Indian treaties may be named as instances of these notorious frauds and 
swindles. 

The infamous contract system, inaugurated by the Indian ring for purchasing Indian 
goods, is another of their means for eniieliing themselves and impoverishing the Indians 
and the Government. Every year these Indians get poor goods at high prices, while the 
ring divides a large percentage — thdr profits out of the swindling transaction?. These con- 
tracts amount to many millions of dollars each 3-ear. The fact is susceptible of proof that 
the Indian ring, not content with the swindles and Tobberies aforesaid, has by misapplica- 
tion, ard other corrupt practices, robbed the vested funds of Indian tribes of enormous 
amounts; but why continue the subject, wliich everybody knows is a mass of rottenness and 
corruption, which a Radical C.Migross will not and dares not investigate, for the simple 
reason that such an investigation would bring to light dark and damning transactions, 
which wovdd cover the perpetrators with infamy and prove luinous to the Radical party. 
It is believed that the swiudles of the Indiau ring amount to over §50,000,000. 

HOW NON-RESUMPTION OF SPECIE PAYMENT FEEDS THE CORRUPT RINGS, 

Salient, first and foremost, and above all other things which feed, nourish, and sustain 
the corrupt Congress and extravagant rings is the failure of tlie government and of Con- 
gress to do what is necessary and was right as to the resumption of specie payments. This 
is the initial point and leading thing in the great public outrage that stains the 
powers that be. That public oflfeuce is as well known to the guilty offenders themselves 
as to those others who are intelligent in such matters, bnt they have become brazen, and 
their consciences are seared as with a hot iron. Gov. Morton, of Indiana, seeks to ex- 
tenuate and palliate this great wrong and outrage, but like the ghost of Banquo, the 
wickedness of rulers in this respect, will not down at any bidding. 

Let us look at this thing. There are always upon the average, some $70,000,000 or 
$80,000 000 of gold in the treasury. It is much of the time nearly double that sum, but 
it is subjrct to large reductions twice a year to pay that enormous interest on llie p\iblic 
debt, which Senator Sherman proposed thiee years t.go to reduce to S.tJO upon along bond 
consolidating all others — a bond which public policy under action of Congress shouid 
enforce, and which position of Senator Sherman was supported by General Butler, aud 



M 

T-liaJdeua Steveii?, the latter saying that if a reduction of the interest was not insisted 
iipon and adopted he would go over to the Deraoenitie party. The poiioy of immediate 
lesumption was urged by thti JVeio Yoi'k Tribune, when gold commanded more than double 
present rates. It was also urged by Ex Secretary' Chase, now Chief Justice of the United 
States; his view waj tiuis laconically expressed, " the only way to resume specie payments 
ij to resume;" of course the pretense used by Grant of the impolicy of resumpliou because of 
fear of harm to indebted classes, had no weight with him or .anybody else, because th^re 
is no indebtedness in the sense of deb's in other days, but what exists is secured by collat- 
erals in some form. What of debts exists generally has set ofFs. There may be 
isolated cases of private indebtedness for which the Radical Congress party has provided 
a bankrupt, law. Why sliould not then the government have resumed specie payments 
when gold was down to 10 per cent. ? If the gold would have commanded that figure — 
some seven or eight millions in greenbacks — tlie money whicli the people are obliged to use 
by reason of the government hoarditig of gold, might have been made by the sales. But 
no, it could not, because if the government had thrown that a»iount, or half, or a quarter 
of it on the raaiket, specie payments would have been resumed at once, just upon the same 
principal that the menace of putting only $4,000,000 upoii the market, reduced the specu- 
lative specie premium from 60 per cent ti> 15 per cent, and even a less sum afterwards. If 
the governuieat had resumed and infused the precious metals once more into the channels 
of business, more than $100,000,000 of gold hoarded in private hands would have come 
out of hiding places, and sought investment. What of benefit would not tiiis accession of 
real money, (not paper promises of bank^, ) have been to every form of business? 
The goveriimeut would liave ceased to be the loser of say $3,000,000 a year in llie 
form of interest, on gold. Tiie like would be true as to private hoardei's. They 
Would be no longer losing interest on the money. The government and the banks have 
*i twice resumed specie payments within a generation when gold was at an infinitely higher 
premium tlian now. Then why not have resumed when gold was at but 10 percent, prem- 
ium or rather greenbacks were but at 10 per cent, discount. And here lies all the law 
and the prophecy of governmental and Congressional wrongfulness, in this respect. 

NATIONAL BANKS. 

The reason why the government has not resumed specie payments and thus brought out 
two or three hundred millions of the precious metais in the country, is because the premium 
upon gold as compared with greenbacks or the money that the the people use, is the pabu- 
lum and foundation stone of the leading class interests, which being fostered by the gov- 
ernment are eating out the substance, and draining the life blopd of the people. It keeps 
up the National Banking Radical policy — keeps up National biiiks without reform or 
pretence of one, upon their extraordinary or unprecedented privilege?, and whose power it 
was sought in vain by iVIr. Treasurer Spinner to abridge, and which has sucli extraordinary 
hold in the House of Represetatives as to have elicited remarks to that effect in Senate 
proceedings from Senator Slierman of Ohio. 

It is not proposed in thi.s argument to assail all and several of National banks, many of 
•which are managed by most reptitable men, but the sys'eni by which, in tlie interest of 
Eastern monetary interests they are run and being multiplied like the frogs of Egypt to flood 
the country with paper money, for which they have nr> basis of specie, and wiiich never 
redeem their notes, and in fact have little or no specie in their vaults on bank account, and 
only as special de(>osit of private parties who us? ih< m for purposes of luiarding as security. 

The theory has been advocated by even the more honest cbiss of Republicans, with iVlr. 
Treasurer Spiniitr at (heir head, that tlie ca|)ital and number of National banks should not 
be extended, and that theii' privileges should be abridged in the public interest, or in 
other words, that there should be reform in respect to their control of the currency of the 
people, and that more greenbacks or government money should be issued to supply the 
currency wants of the people. 

The shoddy contractors who hold government bonds, •which were obtained for 40 or 
.50 per cent, on their face, are authorized under the rule of Radicalism to hold them as 
bank capital, just the same as if they were money. The National banks issue notes to 
nearly the amount ef paid bonds and get interest on said notes. Thus it will he seen 
that the National bank ring gets two interests, one on the bon-ds and another on the notes 
that represent such bonds. iS^ow, if these shoddy people who desire to go into the busi- 
ness of banking had to get specie or government moniy [greenbacks] to bank upon, it 
would call for greeuback'i to the extent of about ,<;30b,0()0,000, on which the interest 
would be ?!l 8,000,000. This •would he saved in taxes upon the people every year. Now 



i: 



it 1-- tluort'u by the government and congressional corruptionis!ri into tlie lianJa of capi- 
talists, whose moaey is in bonds, who in reality do not invest a dollar in money in their 
banking business. So much ior the pluiult-iing of the Public by the National bankipg. 
With such vast aecumaiaiion at the expense of the public, is it any wonder that said banks 
should have immense power in the House of liepiesentalives as was said by Senator 
Shormau. What is not the consideration for the exercise of such power? 

now NOX-RESUMPTIOX 07 SPECIR PAYMENT FEEDS THE PROTECTED 
MONOPOLY INTERESTS. 

It is a principle of the common law, thai no man shall take advantarje of hi.i own wrong. I 
But the Radical party has done just this thing, by the criminal neglect of its Executive I 
government and by Congress to resume specie payments, and itself force National banks j 
to resume, instead of enforcing it in respect to revenues, so as to add more to the burdens 
of the people at large. By ihe criminal failure or neglect in question, (frecnhacks are kept 
at a diicowd, and then the political shysters or swindlers who enforce tliii state of things 
or depreciation of greenbacks, turn about and say that such depreciated paper, which 
the people have to take for money, shall not be legally reeeivaVile by that bond holding 
inteiest, whose bonds, not providing for interest in gold, caused by tlie pa}'tnent of the in- 
terest on them ia greenbacks, would save to the over taxed people tens ol millions of dollars 
yearly. Governor Morton says, in his speech at Lafayette, that he himself was for pay- 
ing the interest on such bonds by greenbacks issued previously to the negotiating of the 
bonds, but Coueresiwas not with him even to that extent. Well, if they were not with 
him, but r'jcctrd his partially remedial policy, by which he says the people would 
have saved in taxes many millions of dollars a year, does it not show that Ids 
party, in such monftrous majtiity in Congress, did wrong, gross wrong, foul and wicked 
wrong in thus deciding to "gild the refined gold" of the purchaser of bonds which pur- 
chasers were, to a great extent, shoddy contraciors, who had superadded the crime of making 
vast fui tunes, which " no rnan can number" out of the people in the hour of th.at extremity 
which called for the life blood of poor men of all parties, though the richs hoddy contractors 
could easily part with their money to buy negro substitutes for the military service. 

THE NATIONAL DEUT. 

These very bondholders refuse to take the money which the people have to take and use, as 
interest on the paper or bonds of the people, which were procured by usurious and extor- 
tionate acts in a dire and distressful hour, but demand gold; and in this they are sustained 
by a corrupt Congress and I'^xecutive Government. A higher, deeper,fouler jiolitieal crime 
in rapacity, robbery and swindling could not possibly be commited by tiie tnercenurv, venal 
and corrupt political schemers that are respotitible for this unneeessai'v form of additional 
and most grinding taxation upon the people. Nor can it be gainsaid by any citizen or 
tax-payer tliat they should — every man of them — be driven from power, and that the 
high places that now know them shall know them no more forever. The form of 
(jiov. Morton's defense of the bondholders is ill and wrong, which asserts that greenbucks, 
or a currency which is dep»'eciated — say now lU per cent. — fiom the specie standard, can- 
not justly be paid as interest on bonds if issued since tlie issue of said bonds. That de- 
fense of the grasping and avaricious and extortionate bondholders is the same as saving 
that they bought bonds when greeidiacks were fearfully depreciated, as compared with 
present values, yet they must have higher values now than at the date of the original 
usurious transaction. An idea so foreign to "right and reason," as is said by Blackstone, 
an idea so hurtful to the public, and of such extreme favoritism to the rich shoddy coptrac- 
tors who purchased the bonds witli depreciated pai)er, is wholly and tolall\' indefensible. 

EASTERN MONOPOLIES. 

The refusal of the Government and Congress to declare for specie payment, by which, 
as has been shown, the National banks and the bondholders get wrongfully tens upon 
tens of millions of dollars out of the over taxed people, ha^ also the effect to pour other 
tens of millions of dollars into the coffers of the mammoth manufacturing monopolies of 
the East. This huge outrage is effected by the fact that all revenue or tariff receipts must be 



IG 

paid in golJ, (so to make eui'e that ihe bondliolilers sliall get tlieir ititereiit iu gold, wliieh is 
a sixth mors in value than greeabacks,) and thus the artioles imported are enhan';ed iu 
price to the people who consume the imports by the amount of the difference between 
gold and paper values. Thus, with a revenue in gold of .$160,000,000, or near that figure, 
a year, greenbacks at, 15 per cent., which is about the present figure, would be required to 
the amount of $2o, 000,000 additional, or about $190,000,000 is the amount in currency that 
the people have to pay for imported articles, and. of course, as before siid. the difference 
of value between gold and greenbacks (notes of National banks being included) is so much 
added to the profit of Eastern manufacturers through the additional protection that is 
afforded them by the effect of the requirement of gold upon the tariff or revenue from tax- 
ation. 

THE LATE CONGRESS. 

Governor Morton's speech at Lafxyette, Indiana, claims credit to the administration for 
paying off, at the rate of about $100,000,000 of dollars a year, on the National debt. Why 
is this the policy of the Radical party ? The answer is obvious. It is to keep up the 
value of the bonds to the bondholders, who now receive 1 per cent, in greenbacks on the 
6 per cent bonds, ^.n.\ also to justify aa enormous taxation iu the form of revenues or 
tariffs, ao that the Eistern manufacturing monopolies may be protected by a literal pil- 
lage of the people. The average protection on gold values is from 40 per cent, to 50 per 
cent., and in greenbacks by a sixth more than these figures. 

The Eastern manufacturing monopolies liave been served to the extent of tens of mil- 
lions of dollars by the late reduction of the tariff, which was largely upon the articles 
that are imported for manufacturing uses, and which, on account of the quasi pro- 
hibitory nature of the present protective tariff system is so much added to the profits of 
the Eastern mann.faeturies which cannot be competed with (excej't upon paying enormous 
duties) by the foreign manufactured articles. Some forms of taxation have been reduced 
by Congress, and the aggregate of appropiations have been somewhat lower, but the 
charge is, and it cannot be repelUd or rightly defended, that the taxes were not enough 
lowered and in the right direction, and that the figure of atigregate appropriations has 
been but a little lowered by the wicked acts of not making some appropriations that 
ought to have been made, and which the tricksters promise shall be at the next session; 
and by that most foul form of outrage aud wrong of shutting down upou appropriations 
made at the two last sessions of Congress upon allowed claims and allowed balances, 
as well as many others, definite or indefinite, for the current public purposes. As a conse- 
quence great numbers of public <:reditors (in other ways than bond holders) are all 
thrown on their beam's ends and failures are taking place oh every hand. Of course the 
Congressional tiicksters say this shall be remedied as soon as Congress meets again. 6 

J This sneaking way of paying so much of the national debt, which ought not, to be paid \ 

I except bv future generations, but only the interest upon it, at 3.G0. is very coitly to the \ 
• people, who cannot afl'ord to have business interests or public needs badgered, hampered * 
and impeded for the benefit of political tricksters, in forms of the worst scheming ch.^racter, 
to enrich the class monetary interests to the exttnt under all heads, as has been shown of 
at least a hundred millions of dollars yearlj% which are literally forced from labor, or the 
agricultural and mechanical classes as by the agency of a bloody sweat. 

Id the views presented, of the profligacy of the people's money for the class interest?, 
can Governor iVlortou, or any other lUdical polit:(;ian say justly, as did the former, that 
tiie taxes on the neces.sariea of life could not be tnken off, or can they say that the gen- 
eral taxation ought not to have been reduced to a far lower figure than its present form 
of execrable proportions. To conclude: perhaps the most shallow and transparent of 
frauds or trick.s is the idea of borrowiut; money to pay the national debt, of Euro[)ean 
nations that have no money to lend, but are borrowing themselves to put np stupendous 
armies in a terrific war of ambition and conquest of rival nations or monarchies, with their 
e operors or kings, and crafty ministers and other paraphernalia, imperial pomp and 
ciroums'tance, aud all to grind the people to the very dust. 

There is but a word to add in summing up this ])aper, namely, that the hordes who are 
inflicting such hideous outrage and wrong upon the people should be one and all hurled 
from power and place, and men of sound ami just principles, in hostility to the course of 
the above named public enemies, should be inttulled iu all leading places of public 
honor and trust. 

Published by tbe Nrttioual Democratic Executive Resident Committe?, Washington, D. C. 



